There are various salt brines which contain Mg.sup.++ values, such as natural brines, ore leachings, process streams, geothermal brines, etc. In some brines, the Mg.sup.++ values may be recovered by such means as solvent extraction or precipitation, or by the use of cation exchange resins to take Mg.sup.++ values from the brine solution.
In brines which contain significant amounts of competing ions such as Li.sup.+, Ca.sup.++, Sr.sup.++, or Ba.sup.++, it is usually difficult to extract the Mg.sup.++ values without extracting competing ions along with it.
There are various prior art methods involving ion exchange resins which pertain to extracting or recovering Mg.sup.++ values from salt brines, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,181; U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,143; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,387,898.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,181 pertains to the use of cation exchange resins for extracting Mg.sup.++ from seawater.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,143 pertains to the use of cation exchange resins for extracting Mg.sup.++ from seawater after removing Ca.sup.++ from the seawater.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,387,898 pertains to the use of a base exchange resin to extract Mg.sup.++ from brine, followed by a brine elution to remove the Mg.sup.++ from the resin by replacing it with another metal.